How to make your first-ever digital publication with Edition Digital
Hi, welcome to Edition Digital, the home of digital publishing. This course will teach you how to create your first-ever digital publication with our smart digital publishing system.
Don’t worry, it’ll be fun.
This beginner’s course is divided into 6 simple steps and to make the most of it, follow them in the order below:
1. How to upload a PDF
2. How to arrange pages
3. How to create a link
4. How to upload a video
5. How to add an image and create a gallery
6. How to create an animation
THINGS YOU’LL NEED BEFORE YOU BEGIN:
Start by going to www.editiondigital.com, click LOG IN and enter your chosen username and password.
Then make sure you have the beginner’s package that we’ve put together for you. Please check your inbox – our beginner’s package will make things a lot easier.
The package contains:
→ PDF – How to make your first-ever digital publication with Edition Digital
→ PDF – Playbook
→ images
→ YouTube video details and poster image
→ animated.png
When you’ve got these you’re ready to go.
If you’ve misplaced the package, you can also download it here.
HOW TO upload a PDF
A Click the green plus icon on the Create new card, where you can select between Edition from PDF, Edition from scratch, and Article, but in this case click Edition from PDF.
B Click on the upload field, select the PDF file from the beginner’s package we’ve sent to you and click Open.
C Type in your choice of Issue name and click NEXT.
D Your edition is now being uploaded – you can see this on your screen.
E Once your edition is uploaded and processed, click PREVIEW and voilà, your first online publication is alive and kicking.
HOW TO arrange pages
A Once your digital publication is processed, the first thing you should learn is how to rearrange pages. All pages that contain the same content should be arranged in the same section. This way, it will be much easier for your readers to follow stories and articles.
B Look for an existing publication – the one you just uploaded, click edit and you will find yourself in the MAIN section.
C Click on the PAGES tab – this is the section where you will edit the page order.
D Drag the subpage of each section or article under the main page – you should drop it, when you see the line.
E When you rearrange the pages, they should look something like this:
F When you are done, just click SAVE and CLOSE.
HOW TO create a link
A Pick a page you want to feature with a link. Click on the selected page and a pencil symbol will appear. Click on it and the selected page will open up in the DESIGN TOOL.
B Go to the Tools panel in the upper left side of the DESIGN TOOL where you can choose between different shape forms for the link – Rectangle, Ellipse and Polyline. Select the one that fits best with the content.
C Mark the desired area:
→ if you selected the rectangle or ellipse tool, mark your selection by clicking and dragging around the desired area.
→ If you selected the polyline tool, mark your selection by clicking around your area and finish the shape by double-clicking or clicking on the initial point.
D Go to Properties panel, where you can select the colour of your link. You’ll usually want both BORDER and FILL to be transparent.
E Go to Actions panel on the right side and click on the + sign. Let’s pick Go to page and select page 5.
F Click SAVE and PREVIEW to see what we have done so far.
G To go to the next page we can either close the DESIGN TOOL and go back to Pages or simply click the right arrow in the upper-right corner.
Tips & Tricks:
→ Press and hold SHIFT while using the rectangle or ellipse link tool to keep link shape proportions and thus draw a perfect square or circle.
→ Press and hold CTRL (CMD on Mac) while using the rectangle or ellipse link tool to draw the link shape from centre out.
HOW TO upload a video
A Open the page you want to feature with a video or simply continue from previous page.
B Click on the selected page and a pencil symbol will appear.
C Click on it and the selected page will open up in the DESIGN TOOL.
D Choose Video in the Tools panel. Click and drag the selected area where you want to insert a video.
E Look at the Video panel and select the video type you want to use – click YouTube video and enter URL for the chosen video. You can find your link in the beginners pack.
F When the video uploads, you can see its Poster image. You can replace it – just simply click CHANGE to upload new. Poster image is visible until the reader clicks play the video.
G Click SAVE and PREVIEW.
HOW TO add an image and create a gallery
A Open the selected page you want to feature with an image or gallery.
B Click on the selected page and a pencil symbol will appear.
C Click on it and the selected page will open up in the DESIGN TOOL.
D Click on the Image tool in the Tools panel. Click and drag the selected area where you want to insert an image.
E After your selection, an upload screen will appear. Upload the desired image.
F If you want to add a link to an image, navigate to the actions panel and add a Open url action.
G Click SAVE and PREVIEW and look at what we’ve done.
H Click the next page arrow in top right hand side of the screen to tackle the next task.
Now you are on the next page and ready to prepare a gallery. A gallery will display a set of images attached to a page.
I Select Gallery tool from the Tools panel. Draw a rectangle where you want the gallery to be placed or simply click on the work area and a pop up Gallery window will appear.
J Drag and drop the selected image or simply click within the gray rectangle to select and upload images.
K If you want to change the order of the photos in the gallery, click on the selected photo and drag and drop it to the desired location. You can add the title, description and link URL to each photo in the gallery.
L Click Save Gallery.
Go to Gallery panel, which offers many functions.
→ Slideshow interval describes the speed with which the images in the gallery will be changing.
→ Swipe images describes the ability to swipe the gallery when we want to see the next or previous picture.
The bottom of the Gallery panel contains different Elements.
→ Thumbnails: toggle display of small navigational/preview thumbnails under the gallery.
→ Full screen button: toggle the ability to see gallery in full screen.
→ Navigation bar: toggles your location within the publication.
→ Image title and description: toggle display of image title and description for each image in the gallery.
M Tick all of them!
N Click SAVE and move to the next page - click on the right arrow in the upper-right corner.
HOW TO create an animation
A Open the page you want to feature with an animation.
→ Click on the selected page and a pencil symbol will appear.
→ Click on it and the selected page will open up in the DESIGN TOOL.
B We’re going to animate an image, so add one to the page (for example, animated.png from our beginner’s package).* Make sure the image is selected by clicking on it in the work area.
If you take a look at the Animations panel, you will see your image already has a default animation. In fact, all elements you add to your page have a default fade-in animation that starts as soon as the page loads (at time: 0) and lasts 0.3 seconds.
Each animation is composed of one or multiple animation steps. In each step we can animate one or multiple element’s properties, like its opacity, size, position, rotation, etc. For each step we can set its duration and easing function (easing allows the transition effect to change speed over its duration).
C Click on the blue animation line just to the left of time 0 marker – this is the
element’s starting position.
D You have now entered ANIMATION EDITOR. Here you can set the element’s initial properties in the Properties panel or by directly manipulating the element in the work area. By default the element has 0 opacity. Leave it at zero, but click and drag the element to the right of the page (zoom out using mouse wheel to see more of the work area).
E Now click on the first step on the blue animation line in the Animation panel (just to the right of time 0 marker).
F Set all the properties you want to animate in this step by changing them in the Properties panel, or by directly manipulating the element. We’re going to animate its position simply by clicking and dragging the element to the centre of the page.
G Now set this animation step’s duration to 2 seconds either by clicking and dragging the white diamond to the right of the selected step on the blue animation line, or by setting it in the Step editor on the right side of the Animations panel.
H The opacity in this animation step is set to 100% by default, which means our image will fade-in. Let’s leave that and preview our animation. Click CLOSE ANIMATION EDITOR and PREVIEW to see our animation in action.
I If everything is OK, our image should fade-in and move from the right to the centre of our page in the timespan of 2 seconds.
Once you are finished with the PREVIEW, click on CLOSE and you will be redirected back to PAGES tab. Congratulations, your first digital publication is ready!
However, if this was the real deal, you should accompany your publication with some extra details before publishing your first digital publication, or as we call it, going live.
We are referring to your publication’s title, description and share image. These are important characteristics of every publication, and are closely related to branding and SEO optimisation. Do not worry we won’t let you forget as our digital publishing system doesn't allow you to go live before providing these crucial details. We've got you covered.
You can now create a review link that you can send out to your friends or colleagues. Because it is a temporary link, though, it shouldn't be posted on social media.
We hope that this course has been useful. Feel free to explore the rest of our knowledge base where you can learn a lot more about digital publishing and creating interactive digital magazines. However, if you don’t find the answers you’re looking for, Matej, our Head of Customer Support, will be happy to help! You can reach him at support@editiondigital.com.
